A trend to truss

Few articles of
clothing have been
as revered or reviled
as the corset. Fans of
the figure-hugging
garment like the way
it smoothes the
torso, cinches the waist and
pushes up the bosom.

Detractors have assailed it as
yet another symbol of the
oppression of women, whose
bodies must be molded into
fashion, at great discomfort,
for the enjoyment of men.

Love them or loathe them,
corsets are again in fashion —
just as they were in the 18th,
19th and early 20th centuries.

Some designs are meant to be
worn as undergarments,
primarily with wedding gowns
and other formal attire. Others
are likely to be worn as an
outer garment — to dinner at a
chic restaurant or with jeans to
a nightclub.

Corsets and corset-inspired
looks were all over the runways
recently.

John Galliano
trimmed a boned style in
white fur; Valentino fashioned
one in pale pink satin and
accented it with lace; Jean Paul
Gaultier sculpted his in
caramel leather.

Narciso
Rodriguez cuts his dresses so
snugly to the body that they
look like corsets, and Betsy
Johnson's corset-topped dress
was rimmed in ribbons.

Corset details such as
boning and lacing appeared
on everything from tank tops
to evening gowns.

The gown
Scarlett Johansson wore to the
recent Golden Globes was a
nude corset-topped design by
Stella McCartney.

Retailers and fashion
observers cite several reasons
why lingerie influences are no
longer under wraps.

First, style
is all about femininity, these
days, with cotton-candy
colours, girlish prints, soft
fabrics and silhouettes and
such trims as ruffles and lace.

Second, "corsets minimise
the waist and enhance the
bustline, a look that's very in
the forefront right now", says
Nancy Sagar, spokeswoman for
retailer Neiman Marcus.

"There's also a mysterious
aura to a corset because it's
typically an undergarment, so
wearing it out is a very sexy
look.

"Years ago, people
wouldn't have dared to wear
something like that. Now it's
become normal.

"Women are very much
into their bodies," she says.
"With all the exercise and
dieting they're doing, they
want to show off their assets."

Corsets were once thought
of as being restrictive and
keeping a woman in line, but
today, "if this is what she
wants, she's going to do it",
says Colette Wong, who
teaches intimate apparel at the
Fashion Institute of
Technology in New York.

"The fascination with
corsets comes from the fact
that you become much more
regal when you wear it; your
stature is much better. Today's
woman likes that feeling."

Badgley MischkaPicture: AFP

Wong also talks with her
classes about the corset as part
of fetish wear.

"Ten years ago, I would
have never thought of
mentioning it, but today there
is a market for it and it has
crossed over to the mainstream,"
she says.

"In today's world, women
are much more comfortable
talking about sex."

Corsets date to Grecian
times, but it wasn't until the
17th century in Spain that
they became widespread for
women.

"It looked like armour,
binding the bust and flattening
the body," Wong says.

Each century brought its
own shape, she says, noting
that the hourglass look that
most associate with corsets
was prevalent in the 19th
century.

It wasn't long before the
garment had its detractors in
the 1800s. Tightly laced
garments could restrict a
woman's ability to breathe, let
alone do useful work.

But the
idea that women's health in
that era was compromised by
wearing tightly laced corsets
was inaccurate, writes fashion
historian Caroline Cox.

Horror
stories were "grossly exaggerated
and distorted", Cox writes
in Lingerie: A Lexicon of Style.

"Women's waists were never
really that small. The popular
notion that some Victorian
women went to the lengths of
having ribs removed to create
a tiny waist is a myth."